CH 239

Villainous Singer (11)

“The Sutra of Great Aspirations” is a scripture written on the planet Ruo Shui long ago, depicting the story of a certain mage who made a great vow to save all sentient beings.

However, Song Xu Yi did not pay close attention to this scripture. In her view, these were merely some useless inspirational words. But she had heard from others that in the ending of the story, the mage did not fulfill his wish of saving all sentient beings. Instead, in the last chapter of the story, he reflected on his deep attachments and advised people not to be too caught up in gains and losses.

Could it be that Song Yi was trying to console her not to be attached to rumors and gossip?

And on that note, Song Yi’s words continued—

“I have read this book many times.”

Listening to Song Yi’s words, Song Xu Yi narrowed her eyes and suddenly thought of a guessing game that used to take place between her and Song Yi.

With her exceptional memory, before sending the original owner to Proxima Centauri, Song Yi would often play a game with her. Song Yi would open a book, announce a page number, and then randomly pick a number of words. The challenge was for the original owner to recite the exact word located at that position.

Song Xu Yi secretly noted down all the numbers Song Yi had mentioned.

After ending the conversation with Song Yi, Song Xu Yi returned to her room, opened “The Sutra of Great Aspirations,” and found the appropriate page numbers. One by one, she searched for the words according to the specified positions, ultimately piecing together a sentence—

“Slowly hibernate and wait quietly for the blossoming.”

Despite consisting of only eight simple characters, after reading them, Song Xu Yi found her eyes inexplicably welling up with tears.

This sentence completely clarified Song Yi’s stance: he was slowly hibernating, enduring insults and carrying burdens, unwavering from his initial intentions throughout, regardless of the defamation he endured.

In any era, across time and space, there would always be individuals who, for the future of their nation, would sacrifice themselves, forget death, and disregard personal well-being.

Song Xu Yi recalled the plot summary from the original text. From another perspective, after Song Yi befriended the people of Proxima Centauri, the light of technology gradually illuminated the planet Ruo Shui. The inhabitants of Ruo Shui began to grasp some technological means, forming organized resistance against the invasion of higher-end planets.

However, if the Proxima Centaurians were to discover this truth, Song Yi’s fate would be unimaginable. Perhaps he had long prepared to sacrifice himself for the sake of Ruo Shui. He remained solitary throughout his life, never marrying, with the only person he could consider as family being the adopted Song Xu Yi…

For individuals who were so dedicated to the planet Ruo Shui, they shouldn’t end up with the same fate as the original plot’s summary, where everything was lost.

In this statement, Song Xu Yi also understood the approach she could take later on.

During this period, perhaps to prevent Song Xu Yi from becoming the top student, the Proxima Centaurian teacher had secretly started providing extra lessons to many students who had better grades than those from Proxima Centauri. To secure a spot in the top three, Song Xu Yi could only put in more effort than the others.

But Song Yi’s words made Song Xu Yi realize that openly clashing with the Proxima Centaurians at present would only result in extra difficulties for herself, or even an early failure due to the clear target drawing too much attention. Rather than revealing her abilities upfront, it might be wiser to remain low-key and slowly bide her time. After all, as the ace specialty of Proxima Centauri, for the sake of fairness, the graduation projects of the robotics departments in every college were broadcast worldwide. The Proxima Centaurians wouldn’t tamper with the projects during the public broadcast. If she could excel at that moment, she would undoubtedly have the chance to proceed to higher levels of learning.

With these thoughts, in the next exam, Song Xu Yi’s grades noticeably dropped by a large margin.

Song Xu Yi appeared extremely anxious, frequently posing questions to the Proxima Centaurian teachers. Among these questions, eight or nine out of ten were very basic, often mixed with one or two difficult problems.

The Proxima Centaurian teachers marveled at Song Xu Yi’s approach, but after several consecutive exams in which she fell to the middle ranks, they began to believe that her talent was lacking. They were content to show their compassion for the weak, adopting a condescending attitude. They started relaxing their vigilance towards Song Xu Yi and became willing to teach her.

The rumors and gossip about Song Xu Yi cheating gradually quieted down, replaced by biased remarks about the inhabitants of Ruo Shui being incomplete in their evolution, good only at singing and dancing, but not at thinking.

During this period, Song Xu Yi began to discreetly investigate Lin Ruoyu’s background and origins. However, other than learning about Lin Ruoyu’s parents’ deaths, she didn’t uncover any other information.

For some unknown reason, on a certain day, when Song Xu Yi once again went to Lin Ruoyu’s room, she discovered that the room had acquired quite a few new models of robots, some of which were even unavailable on the market.

Compared to these new models of robots, the robot that Song Xu Yi was about to teach Lin Ruoyu to use, which could create hairstyles based on the type of concert, seemed especially plain.

Lin Ruoyu didn’t explain the reason for purchasing these robots. She looked particularly tired that evening, yawning and waving her hand to decline joining Song Xu Yi in disassembling the robots. “I’m too tired. I don’t want to learn anything from you these days. Just play with whatever you want…”

Song Xu Yi pursed her lips. She was indeed interested in these new robots, but Lin Ruoyu, while claiming to be tired, didn’t turn off communication for some reason. She lay on the side, closing her eyes. Even though Lin Ruoyu’s projection seemed to have tightly shut eyes and appeared to be fast asleep, Song Xu Yi oddly felt a sense of constraint. She also hesitated to disassemble the newly bought robots in Lin Ruoyu’s presence, fearing she might damage something.

After thinking for a while, Song Xu Yi decided to disassemble the old model robots in Lin Ruoyu’s room instead.

She casually picked an old-looking discarded robot to disassemble. At first glance, the robot seemed unremarkable, but it was only after Song Xu Yi took it apart that she realized its true potential. There was actually a small mechanical arm inside! Upon exploration, Song Xu Yi belatedly realized that this was a cleaning robot. Despite its modest appearance, it was designed using advanced principles of mechanics, making it more efficient at collecting dust. Moreover, the robot had state-of-the-art sensors and could even climb walls to clean every corner. It also had an automatic cleaning function when unattended.

This advanced cleaning robot far surpassed the simple-minded robot Song Xu Yi had designed, which would cheerfully announce, “Hello, I will now clean for you,” and could only operate on the ground. The contrast in their capabilities was immeasurable!

So, Lin Ruoyu had her own cleaning robot!

Thinking back to her previous self when she had presumptuously given Lin Ruoyu a cleaning robot as a gift, Song Xu Yi couldn’t help but blush.

Perhaps Lin Ruoyu hadn’t wanted to refuse her back then, because she had been so enthusiastically giving her gifts…

Song Xu Yi secretly added a “considerate” label to Lin Ruoyu in her mind. Subconsciously, she glanced at Lin Ruoyu. Lin Ruoyu still had her eyes closed, appearing to be sound asleep. Song Xu Yi didn’t want to disturb her rest, so she continued disassembling the robot with mixed feelings.

However, as Song Xu Yi progressed in the disassembly, she encountered a problem: the complexity of the components inside the robot had exceeded her expectations!

Song Xu Yi was attempting to disassemble the robot, but with her current skill level, she had no way of reassembling it afterward.

This was truly embarrassing!

Song Xu Yi glanced at Lin Ruoyu, who still appeared to be asleep. To uphold her own dignity as a “little teacher,” Song Xu Yi secretly activated her light-brain and took a photo of the exterior of the robot.

This was a method Song Xu Yi had learned from her classmates. Given the highly developed robotics industry on Proxima Centauri and the idea that everyone should be able to build robots, many robot alliances had collaborated to create a website. If you had a picture of a robot’s exterior from the market, you could search for it on this specific website and find the same model of robot as well as assembly instructions.

With the assembly instructions, Song Xu Yi was about ninety percent confident that she could reassemble the robot.

However, to Song Xu Yi’s surprise, when she searched for the same model, her light-brain repeatedly displayed “No such robot found. Do you want to input it?”

Song Xu Yi tried several times, but the same result persisted. She couldn’t help but look at Lin Ruoyu, who was nearby, with a gaze of astonishment: Could it be that this robot wasn’t available on the market?

Considering Lin Ruoyu’s exceptional learning abilities and the variety of robots in the room, a thought slowly emerged in Song Xu Yi’s mind. Just as this idea was about to take shape, Lin Ruoyu, who seemed to be sound asleep, suddenly opened her eyes—

Rubbing her eyes, Lin Ruoyu’s gaze still appeared somewhat drowsy. Her eyes swept over the disassembled robot in front of Song Xu Yi, and though her expression dimmed, she let out a sluggish yawn. “This was sent to me by a fan. They said it’s a robot not available on the market. But I don’t know how to use it, and I don’t like using it—”

Lin Ruoyu curved her lips. “I prefer the robots you make for me,” she tilted her head and looked at Song Xu Yi. “The robots you make have warmth.”

Interrupted by Lin Ruoyu, Song Xu Yi faced her with a smile that seemed to hold the radiance of stars. Her face felt flushed, and the perplexity in her heart seemed to dissipate in an instant. It was replaced by a sense of small excitement, followed by a rush of embarrassment for feeling so shy due to her own inadequacy. Ultimately, she decided to be honest, biting her lip and lowering her gaze as she softly spoke, “But I dismantled this robot and now I don’t know how to reassemble it. Your fan is really talented…”

“Then you can assemble it another time!” Lin Ruoyu, however, appeared entirely unconcerned. Her smile deepened, and she stretched in a lazy yawn. She reached out her hand, seemingly wanting to pinch Song Xu Yi’s cheek. However, since this was currently just a projection, her fingers merely brushed past the side of Song Xu Yi’s cheek.

Lin Ruoyu’s eyes dimmed for a moment, but her voice continued with a playful tone, “Xu Yi, you’ve managed to achieve things that many inhabitants of Ruo Shui can’t. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and don’t worry about the rumors at school. Just enjoy working on your robots…”

Initially, Song Xu Yi hadn’t thought much about Lin Ruoyu’s words. However, in that instant, the system in her mind translated the message: “Xu Yi, can’t you see it yet? The villain intentionally bought so many robots and pretended to be asleep! She probably found out about your recent drop in grades and thought you were stressed, so she’s giving you more time to practice…”

Is that so?

Song Xu Yi widened her eyes, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that the system’s interpretation seemed to be quite accurate. She couldn’t help but raise her gaze to Lin Ruoyu. It seemed she couldn’t change her expression quickly enough, but when Song Xu Yi looked over, Lin Ruoyu still appeared nonchalant, yet her eyes held a glint of genuine concern.

Meeting Song Xu Yi’s gaze, Lin Ruoyu blinked and then broke into a smile. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Song Xu Yi lowered her head. In that fleeting moment, she felt an urge to tell Lin Ruoyu that she was just pretending, to spare her any worries. But the words got stuck at her lips. It was still too early for that! People’s hearts were the most fickle of things. Lin Ruoyu was currently focused on Proxima Centauri, but who could say what the future held? If she revealed the truth now, it would inevitably bring up the matter of Song Yi. Song Yi had endured hardships for so many years; she couldn’t expose him just because of herself…

A whirlwind of emotions raced through Song Xu Yi’s mind, yet she remained unaware of the contemplative glint in Lin Ruoyu’s eyes as she looked at her—

Lin Ruoyu had been pretending to be asleep all along. She had watched the video of Song Xu Yi during the exam, and the clumsy appearance there was completely different from the dexterous manner she exhibited while dismantling the cleaning robot just now.

Xu Yi was pretending; she intentionally performed poorly in the exam.

Moreover, she was keeping something from her, unable to meet her gaze…

What secret did she hold?